


Stay

by happywriter16



Series: I don't know where this is going but I like it. [3]
Category: Justified
Genre: Alternate Universe, Black Character(s), Canon Character of Color, F/M, Female Character of Color, Interracial Relationship, i wish, if only
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-12
Updated: 2017-07-12
Packaged: 2018-12-01 11:00:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11484993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/happywriter16/pseuds/happywriter16
Summary: Rachel goes to Raylan's house to talk. She's only a little jealous.





	Stay

**Author's Note:**

> Mini spoiler for early in the last season.

“You sleeping with her?” is the first thing out her mouth as she stands a few feet from his open front door. 

At her question, he leans against the door frame, crossing his arms and legs at the ankles. She can’t read his expression, can’t tell if he’s mad or not when he says, “You don’t get to ask me that.” His tone, flat. 

That’s fair, Rachel says only in her head. She’d called off their – whatever it was. It's not fair at the same time. It made sense to call it off at the time with her replacing Art while he recovers. It’d been hard enough keeping things just between the two of them before she took charge. She didn’t need the added stress. 

He wasn’t happy. He didn’t talk to her unless it was work related for a week. He eventually told her he understood, just not in those words. He brought her coffee and her favorite doughnut one morning. She'd been forgiven. She knows that's not an easy thing to get out of him. 

He doesn’t seem like he’s going to ask so she does. “Can I come in?”

He straightens up then moves aside so she can enter. 

It’s nice inside his new place, which she’s only heard about until now, a little cottage in a quiet neighborhood. He finally got a real place, she’d thought when she overhead him talking about it. He’d taken her advice. She’d told him that his living above a college bar just confirmed some of the not so great opinions about him. 

“I like it,” she tells him as she walks around the living room. He needs more furniture, pictures, some things to make it look like a home.

“Needs a woman’s touch or something,” he says.

“I’m sure Ava could give you a hand with that.” Her back is to him when she says it. 

“Are you jealous Rachel?”

It’s a more than a few seconds that pass before Rachel responds. She walks to the window that overlooks the side yard then turns to him. She perches herself on the windowsill. She takes a deep breath then admits, “I’m a lot of things Raylan.” To her own ears, she sounds defeated, which she hasn't felt in quite awhile. 

He doesn’t seem notice or he doesn't care because he kinds of laughs, a smirk spreading across his face, that smirk that makes you want to either kiss him or kill him depending on what caused the smirk in the first place. 

As much as he can be a pain in the ass, professionally and personally, she missed him. She misses the easy intimacy they managed to achieve once they made peace with the attraction (more like she had to make peace), had no expectations and didn’t try and change the other. They still talk, can shoot the shit. She can bust his balls (jokingly and in all seriousness) about his work decisions but it’s different now. It’s not like it was before they started sleeping together. You don't shit where you eat, the old saying goes. They have old sayings for a reason.

If Raylan had said something like what she just admitted, she’d press him on it. Get him to spell it out, use his words because he would rather shoot his feelings out or fuck them out or mask them in snark and jokes if the first two options aren’t available. Raylan won’t do that to her. He won’t push or prod, just wait on her to come clean herself or move on. She doesn't know which is worse, her way or his. 

Rachel’s feelings for Raylan are not clean, all mixed up, something she didn’t think they were until seeing him and Ava together. She’s not jealous; at least that’s only part of it. Moving on isn’t as easy as she thought. 

When she gets up off the windowsill, Raylan’s moving towards her, his eyes never leaving hers. 

“I guess that makes two of us,” he admits when they're mere centimeters apart. It’s Rachel’s turn to laugh. It’s relief that spreads through her and continues as his hands come up to frame her face. It’s moments like these when she remembers Raylan was married once. He knew enough to woo a woman, keep her a while beyond the sex, make her love him and he show her how much he loved her. 

“I’m not sleeping with her.”

“Not even to get Boyd?”

“I’d rather sleep with you.”

He doesn’t kiss her on lips like she expects. He moves his right hand then ducks to kiss the side of her neck giving her a chance to respond. All that comes out of her mouth is a sigh. 

He laughs again, his breath tickling her neck. His moves up to kiss just beneath her ear. Then whispers, “I missed that sound.”

“I missed you.” Even after her earlier admission, she still cringes inwardly. 

He pulls back to look at her, smirk firmly in place. “I guess you’ll be staying then.”


End file.
